acumen: high-throughput imaging of cellular models

high throughput imaging of cell based assays and cellular models using microplate cytometry

Microscope-based, high content instruments are used for many cell based assays in high content screening (HCS). For efficient and rapid analysis most assays require the use of higher resolutions which entail lengthy read times, using single colours. Furthermore, in order to keep plate read times at a minimum, often only a small percentage of the total number of cells are analyzed in a well. acumen® hci is a laser scanning imaging cytometer with a widefield objective lens and “on-the-fly” laser scanning capabilities. acumen rapidly scans entire wells, enabling statistically robust data to be obtained for a number of cell-based assays relevant to the drug discovery industry such as cell cycle analysis, cell signalling, cell surface marker expression and cell migration.

We present data demonstrating the use of acumen hci to assess the effect of compounds on cell cycle and mitotic index. We also highlight the application of laser scanning imaging cytometry for the study of kinase activation determination.

More recent studies demonstrate that acumen hci is also capable of rapidly analysing complex cellular or animal models, such as angiogenic tube formation, C. elegans or Drosophila larvae and Zebrafish embryos.
In addition to acumen’s built in software, it offers the flexibility of exporting whole well OME-compliant TIFF images at high throughput for batch processing by third party image analysis software packages.

The combination of image processing methodology and large depth of field cytometric scanning provides the potential for the development of whole organism or tissue-based assay models for high content drug screening to provide information on multi-cellular drug interactions at an early stage.